Jaime Carlos Arnold

Jaime Carlos Arnold was born in the Distrito Federal, Mexico (Mexico City area) on February 21, 1951 to his parents James Arnold (from Canada) and Lilia Cervantes (Kelley). His father died when he was about six month old and he was raised by his mother and his maternal aunt, Graciela Cervantes (both now deceased). He immigrated to the USA when he was about 8 years old and later became a naturalized US citizen. His family lived in the Long Beach California area. He later moved to the Perris California area.

He worked for the State of California Employment Development Department in various positions for over 40 years, most recently as a job developer when he retired.

He had several coin collections and enjoyed all the James Bond movies, anything Tom Clancy wrote and hockey. He liked mystery movies and crime dramas (Hercule Poirot, all the NCIS and CSI series, the JAG series) and quirky comedies like “the Big Bang Theory”. Donovan was his favorite musician, attending several of his concerts. Donovan’s song “Brother Sun and Sister Moon” was one of his favorite songs by this artist. He also enjoyed going on cruises and visiting with his wife Licha’s family in New Mexico. The Walk for Life in San Francisco was one of his yearly highlights.

He was a devout Catholic and served in various ministries with his wife (parish council, finance committee, lector, altar server coordinator, Eucharistic Minister, usher, RCIA catechist) in several parishes in the diocese of San Bernardino. (Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Bernardino, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Chino and most recently at St. James the Less in Perris). He was a fourth degree Knight of Columbus having “gone through the chairs” and served two years as Grand Knight for Council 9986, Faithful Navigator for Assembly 1733, District Deputy for the Arrowhead Chapter and most recently as the vice president for this chapter. He took his leadership positions seriously and attended many trainings offered by the Knights so that he could better himself as a leader in this fraternal order and was often a resource to many of his brother Knights.

He is survived by his wife of 22 years, Eligia (Licha) Herrera and his half-brother, John Simich. Although he had no children, he was close to his RCIA students (God father to several students) and Licha’s extended family.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made, in his name, to:

• The St. James the Less food pantry in Perris

• Veronica’s House of Mercy in San Bernardino

• Vitas hospice